The Old Independent Chapel in Ware associated with William Godwin is to be converted into five flats. The building in Church Street was completed in 1778 as the date above the front door records. William, now best known as the husband of pioneer feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, was the first minister of the brand new chapel. […]

Turning off the towpath at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to follow The Greenway can be handy for Pudding Mill Lane Station, on the Docklands Light Railway. Note that Pudding Mill Station is likely to be closed during most weekends until September. This is due to Crossrail workings in the area. Planned closure dates: 18-19 March […]

There has been milling at Ponders End for a thousand years. The mill was there when Domesday Book was compiled in 1086. The house and weatherboarded watermill date from 1789 when wheat was arriving by barge. Now the Wright famiiy is about to celebrate 150 years running the mill. George Wright came to Ponders End […]

London City Island was once called Goodluck Hope Peninsula. The land, shaped by the River Lea looping dramatically, is a peninsula rather than an island. From 1845 to 1874 it was occupied by the Thames Plate Glass Company producing mirrors and employing a large number of women. More recently the site was a margarine factory. Now it is […]

The Twelvetrees Ramp opened quietly just before Christmas. This is the link just below Three Mills in London which allows the walker to follow the tidal River Lea rather than the made-made final stretch of navigation which ends at Limehouse, on the wrong side of the Isle of Dogs. The link from the towpath up […]

Adventures in the Lea Valley by Polly Braden and David Campany is a photo book looking at pre-Olympic Lea Valley. Just over a decade ago the pair roamed the edge of what has become the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Their photographs bring back my memories of visiting in 2005 just after it was designated as […]

The 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in October will have a resonance in the Lea Valley. King Harold came down the valley from victory over Norway at the Battle of Stamford Bridge to confront William of Normandy on the south coast. He stopped at Waltham Abbey church which he knew well and prayed […]

The River Lea divides at Three Mills as the navigation with the towpath goes into the man-made Limehouse Cut leaving the natural tidal river to wind down to the Thames as Bow Creek. Later this month it will be possible to join this dramatic tidal stretch without having to take a diversion along the very […]

ITV’s Victoria featured mention of Brocket Hall within the first few minutes of the first episode. Queen Victoria’s diaries reveal that she was asking her prime minister Lord Melbourne almost daily about his country home. On the 13 Feb 1838 Victoria received at Buckingham Palace “a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Lord Melbourne from Brocket”. Was […]

The Stonehill Business Park N18 3QX is an odd slightly bleak stretch of Lea Valley Walk between the so-called Lea Valley Viaduct  (or North Circular) and the delightful Tottenham Marshes to the south. it it best known for the Arriva bus depot. Now the land on both sides of the river at the business park […]